


Woman Like a Song

by leiascully



Category: The West Wing
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-03-20
Updated: 2006-03-20
Packaged: 2017-10-03 07:26:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leiascully/pseuds/leiascully
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Donna always danced down corridors.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Woman Like a Song

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Title and lyrics from Kurt Ellings' "Woman Like A Song".  
> Disclaimer: _The West Wing_ and all related characters are property of Aaron Sorkin, Thomas Schlamme, and NBC. No profit is made from this work and no infringement is intended.

CJ liked to listen to music in her office. For the last three months, it had been the same cd, soft smoky jazz that made her shift in her chair, sweetly restless.

I hear the woman like a song  
Dancing down a long corridor  
Reminding me I belong where I am.

Donna never walked down corridors. She always danced, hips swaying to an inner rhythm that drove CJ crazy. She kept the shades to her office closed in the evenings and locked the door more and more frequently. There was a very quiet vibrator in her desk drawer and extra batteries in another. When Donna moaned on the couch, CJ caught the sounds in the cup of her palm or swallowed them, making a meal of Donna's desire. She'd taken to keeping an air freshener in her office to mask the smell of sex. It worked, but not perfectly: all day she'd catch hints of Donna in the air and take deep breaths, clenching her thighs against the rush of lust.

Josh was clueless. That was the fun part. CJ couldn't help smirking when she saw him. It wasn't as if he was being cuckolded, or as if there had ever been anything between him and Donna, but as long as he wasn't sleeping with Carol, CJ was still winning somehow. She had the biggest prize in the West Wing. And she had her anywhere she wanted: in her office, in her apartment, in Donna's apartment, and on particularly memorable occasions, in Josh's office and in the women's bathroom. They kept their relationship secret – not because they feared scandal, but because Donna had whispered huskily that it was more fun if things were dangerous, if during the day they had to steal time together in the dark corner of the mess, in the bathroom, in the alcoves of the hallway.

For the first time in her life, CJ was happy without having to stop and think about whether she was happy or not. She had a wonderful woman to spoil and caress, a gorgeous companion whom she thought she might be beginning to really love. Donna had loved her for years – she told CJ stories of her love every night across the pillow.

Today it was Saturday. "CJ and I are going shopping," said Donna, the two of them crowded into the doorway of Josh's office. "We'll be back in a few hours."

"Just make sure you're back in a few hours," said Josh, utterly absorbed in whatever it was that he was reading. They smirked and fled to Barney's to try on things that Donna couldn't possibly afford, and CJ shouldn't splurge on. These trips usually ended up with a new something for each of them; CJ couldn't resist spending money on Donna, and she did have a little extra left over from her Hollywood salary.

"Come look at this," said Donna from her dressing cubicle. CJ eased through the door and found Donna behind it wearing nothing but her heels.

"Pins on the floor," Donna explained, and made sure the door was locked before crushing CJ against the wall with a kiss. Her hands were everywhere. Did she still have just two? CJ was too distracted to check, too unbuttoned and flushed to care. She smothered her gasps against Donna's alabaster shoulder and Donna's blonde hair made a curtain to shelter them.

They parted back at the office. Donna pursed her lips in the merest hint of a blown kiss as she clicked her way back to Josh. CJ flung herself into her chair and allowed herself a few minutes to bask in the glow of her liaison. She smiled, her eyes closed and the heat rising again in her face. A noise from the door startled her. She sat up quickly, eyes opening. Toby stood in her doorway, looking even more hangdog than usual.

"What's up?"

"CJ…" he began, but trailed off. He laced his fingers together and then unlaced them, and looked over his shoulder. "Can I come in for a minute?"

"Sure." Toby was generally morose, but today he looked as if all his remaining relatives had died. He stepped into her office and closed the door behind him, then stood fidgeting. "Toby? Is something wrong?"

He sighed, dropped his eyes, walked over to her desk, and began fiddling with her paperweights. "You can't…you can't keep doing what you're doing. To Donna. With Donna," he amended.

"What? Why?" She stiffened. "First of all, how do you know?"

"It's not the biggest secret in the office. The two of you are…not entirely discreet." He spoke deliberately, giving each word weight in his particular way, but he kept his eyes on her desk.

CJ went into defense mode. "So?"

"So you can't do it. You can't keep sleeping with her."

"I don't see how it's any of your business."

"The White House is my business," he said, sounding faintly anguished. "Can you imagine how bad this looks for her, if someone from the press corps finds out? Donna's been in trouble before. People assumed that she was trying to sleep her way to the top with Josh, and then there was that fiasco at Inauguration. This could destroy her."

"First of all," CJ floundered, "first of all, it's really none of your business. Second of all, no one will think that! And no one will find out! And even if they did, we don't need to hide our relationship."

"CJ, Josh asked me to talk to you," he said quietly, giving extra weight to Josh's name. "He knows. Leo knows. Half the bullpen knows. It will get out, and it will be damaging to Donna. There is no way that you can spin this, because now it looks like you have something to hide, and in this White House, we know how well that goes over."

CJ exploded. "Why are you talking to me about this? I know you used to think my life was yours to run. That's why I left you, if you remember. My business is not your business any more. You are overestimating the impact of this on Donna, and even if what you said did happen, I would go down too."

"No." He shifted from foot to foot. "You would escape and you know it. It's always the assistant that gets slammed. You know that."

She did. She stood up, unable to sit with this much emotion roiling in her. CJ paced, brushing angrily past Toby. She felt like throwing something.

"Why are you saying this to me? Why you and not Josh or Leo? What the hell makes you think you have the right?"

Toby looked up at her finally and held her furious gaze for a moment. He lifted his chin in that particular way he had so that he was almost gazing down his nose. CJ knew all his defense mechanisms. She waited. The silence between them was leaden. Toby moistened his lips, opened his mouth, closed it. He took a deep breath.

"Because I love her."


End file.
